Do you have a large monitor, but you get confused when trying to manipulate multiple windows? Windows 11 gives you an easy way to split your screen in a variety of ways. The technique is easy, but you need a little instruction.

Background

I’ve been a fan of dual monitors for almost 20 years. Here is a short blog post I wrote in 2006 on the topic. In the pencil-and-paper world, when reading an article and taking notes from that same article, any thoughtful person would place the article and the notebook side-by-side. We would never place the article on top of the notebook, read a little, and then place the notebook back on top to write a little.

But that’s exactly what we do in the digital world. We minimize and maximize windows. Dual monitors ended that confusion. With two monitors side by side, a person could read a Word document on one monitor and enter data from that article in an Excel spreadsheet on the other monitor.

Today, larger monitors are plentiful. With the improvements in the amount of real estate in front of us, we have an opportunity. We can have two, three, or four windows open on various areas of the screen at the same time. But how to make it happen easily has been the mystery.

One setting and the fun begins

Windows 11 makes it easy. First, turn on one setting. In the search windows at the bottom of the screen, type “Multitasking.” A window appears. Look for “Snap windows.” Flip the switch to “on.”

Now the fun begins. With a browser window open, hover over the “maximize” box in the upper-right corner. It’s the one we’ve always used to toggle the window between full screen versus being able to resize and drag the window.

When the mouse hovers over the box, a set of images appears. With one click, choose how the open windows are arranged. You see 6 different options: split the screen in half, thirds, quarters, and three other variations on those arrangements.

Want to divide the screen into four equal quarters? Click on the option that resembles that arrangement.

But let’s go a step further. You get to decide where the window in which you are working will appear. Click on the upper right corner of that option and that window will now occupy the upper-right quarter of the screen.

In another quarter, you’ll see several small images. These images represent the other open windows. Click one of them. The selection enlarges to occupy that quarter of the screen. Continue with that process until each quarter of the screen displays a different window.

Further information and a video on this topic are available on FrankBuck.org. Select “Blog” from the menu and enjoy the post you find.

With a little practice, splitting the screen into two, three, or four parts will become second nature. If you have a large monitor, it’s time to take advantage of its capabilities. Schedule some time now to experiment with this feature and make it part of your workflow.

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